Clear Choice Awards

Since 1989, the Clear Choice Awards has honored consumer product goods manufacturers who find unique ways to use glass packaging to tell the story of their brand, create glass containers that stand out on the shelf, and feature innovative designs.

The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) announces the winners of its 2018 Clear Choice Awards, recognizing the country's top brands and manufacturers that create first-rate designs to shape powerful brand experiences. The winners were recognized during a ceremony at the national Packaging That Sells Conference in Chicago.

The winning glass containers were selected by an independent panel of food and beverage packaging professionals, including Tom Bobak, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, American Craft Beer; Anne Marie Mohan, Senior Editor, Packaging World and Denise Purcell, Head of Content for the Specialty Food Association.

Product Category: Beer, Cider and Flavored Alcoholic Beverage

Product: 500ml Sour

Company: Wicked Weed Brewing

Glass Manufacturer: Ardagh Group

Packaging Inspiration: Wicked Weed 500ml Sour Collection captures the perfect blend of a classic Belgian beer bottle and a champagne bottle, with a 29mm cap and neck that accommodate a wine cork to finish the presentation. The long neck, beveled based and deep punt help set this innovative beer package apart from the pack, and showcase the brand’s premium spot on the shelf.

Product Category: Wine & Spirits & Overall Score Winner

Product: WildTurkey Longbranch

Company: Gruppo Campari

Glass Manufacturer: O-I

Packaging Inspiration: Wild Turkey Longbranch, a collaboration between Academy Award winning actor Matthew McConaughey and Wild Turkey Master Distiller Eddie Russel, is a masculine bourbon created with the inspiration of a welcoming Southern handshake. It’s all captured in a cosmetic-flint glass bottle featuring broad shoulders, an elongated neck and wide mouth for a controlled pour that celebrates the rich flavors and aesthetic of the bourbon inside. This custom, premium package proves worthy of celebrity status.

Product Category: Food

Product: TABASCO® brand Diamond Reserve Pepper Sauce

Company: McIlhenny Company

Glass Manufacturer: Ardagh Group

Packaging Inspiration: An American tradition since 1868, McIlhenny Company has a rich history of packaging its TABASCO® Sauce in glass containers. For the brand’s 150th anniversary, McIlhenny selected the finest peppers on Avery Island, mashed with a small amount of salt, then aged – some for up to 15 years – and blended with sparkling white wine vinegar. A 187ml sparkling wine Champagne Green glass bottle was the perfect package to celebrate this exceptional sauce. The bottle is finished with gold label decoration and a gold foil seal, and packaged in a special-edition sealed gold box to make this a collectible.

Product Category: Cosmetics, Fragrances & Other

Product: DKNY Nectar Love 50 ml

Company: Estée Lauder Companies

Glass Manufacturer: Vitro Packaging

Packaging Inspiration:DKNY Nectar Love perfume takes its inspiration from the bees, with ingredients that include an exclusive, natural extract of honeycomb and neroli. The luxury, custom glass package reflects this perfectly with a bee engraved into the glass and as part of the flush finish on the cap to please both the visual and tactile senses. Engraving and silk screen on the bottle front and excellent distribution on the colorless glass bottle base all add up to a distinctive, premium package for this irresistible and intoxicating fragrance.

Product Category: Newcomer to Glass Packaging (Including Reversions)

Product: Caffé Monster

Company: Monster Energy Company

Glass Manufacturer: Ardagh Group

Packaging Inspiration:Monster Energy Company brand shakes up the category with the first sleek, 13.7oz premium glass bottle for Caffé Monster. The coffee has a “take no prisoners” attitude with a glass package to back it up. The tall, slender, square glass bottle delivers on market differentiation and the traditional coffee house chalkboard font on the label provides a premium, unique look on the shelf. Both the label and the cap feature the Monster Claw to ensure consumers that this coffee is brewed with killer Monster flavor and supercharged with Monster Energy blend.

Product Category: Sustainability

Product: BottleDrop Refillable Bottle

Company: Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative

Glass Manufacturer: O-I

Packaging Inspiration: The BottleDrop refillable glass bottle is the world’s most sustainable package. It can be used 25 times before being retired from circulation and recycled into new containers, while delivering up to 66 times less CO2 emissions per container than aluminum cans. The cost per filling is also reduced over the lifetime of the bottle. The bottle has a unique neck shape and is embossed with the BottleDrop logo and “Refillable Please Return” on the shoulder and bottle heel for easy customer recognition and to facilitate sorting. The embossing was intentionally placed at wear points so it will become more prominent over time as the bottle patinas. The bottle was also designed with thicker glass, especially at wear points, to withstand multiple uses. The 12oz and 500ml bottles can be customized with label and closure, and seven Oregon breweries have committed to offering the refillable containers

Product Category: Non-Alcoholic Beverage

Product: Coca-Cola Origins

Company: Coca-Cola North Amerca

Glass Manufacturer: O-I Mexico

Packaging Inspiration: For Millennials seeking new taste experiences Coca-Cola California Raspberry and Coca-Cola Georgia Peach in its iconic glass bottle delivers. The glass package design reinforces the local, craft-inspired personality of these unique beverages, and the logos and imagery printed directly on the bottles use ultraviolet ACL technology to create an etched-feel giving the package a special appeal. It’s all topped with the bright colors of raspberry and peach on the cap and around the neck. Coca-Cola California Raspberry and Coca-Cola Georgia Peach are a delicious twist on a true original, combining the timelessness of Coca-Cola with a unique flavor from its birthplace.